Aaron spent a few quiet days in the forest. He fell back into his routine, training in the morning and the evening. When he had some spare time in between, he scouted the forest to prepare for the next step in his plan. Permanent residences. Or to be more specific bunkers. Doomsday preppers cabins, just underground. He had played with that idea in his last life. The problem back then was that he would have had to buy land and pay taxes for that land. Which meant shell companies or fake identities at least. In short it would have been a monstrous effort for very little gain. Building a bunker and equipping it for his needs was expensive and difficult to do. Also lots of people would know where it was, defeating most of the purpose. In the end he had only a few hideouts he had used. But he thought he could do better this time.

  In this world there was no property law, not even a proper central government, especially not out here in the forest. Out here there were just trees and wilderness. Perfect to hide and vanish into, but uncomfortable and a building of any kind out here would probably stick out like a sore thumb. But a bunker would be invisible. It would be underground and ideally have multiple exits to allow Aaron to have as much safety and concealment as possible.

  So he undertook the time consuming task of mapping out the forest, finding flowing water and natural landmarks he could use to conceal entrances to a bunker. Water was necessary because he did not want to walk for miles with a tub to enjoy a bath. In the end he decided on three locations after 3 days of searching and mapping out the terrain. One was close to the hills he had hid before during the manhunt on this floor. It would ideally be right underneath the edge of the hills, with an exit into the hills and two into the forest. He had vague plans of making those exits impossible to enter for anyone but a cultivator. Since he was the only one active in the tower at the moment, it would be a foolproof way of locking something. But Aaron had no idea how to do that, he just knew it exited since he had seen entrances like that in the tower wall before. He would have to ask Mortag if it was possible to fabricate something he could use. He was sure the man would appreciate the business to alleviate his boredom either way.

  A second bunker would be close to the clearing east of the town, but this one he decided to build just underneath the forest with no visible traces of it. A trapdoor grown over with moss, unable to be discerned from the surrounding forest floor by anyone without his senses. Just as secure as a cultivator activated lock and convenient due to his vicinity to the Town. The third and last bunker he planned somewhere to the north alongside the big river that made its way through the floor. It would complete his plan to have fallback points to regroup, hide and if necessary ambush pursuers anywhere on the first floor. But it would not be easy to do.

  Aaron had many talents, but he did not know how to build anything underground. He did not even have the expertise to build anything more complicated than a rough shelter, so even a log cabin would strain his abilities. Not to say anything about a bunker far enough underground that it would be difficult to detect. There would need be a lot of digging and creating a stable support system for this cellar like bunker. He was sure he could make some builders in the Town understand what he wanted. But it would be difficult to handle them. They would certainly need to build it for weeks if not months even with a team of a dozen people or more without modern excavation equipment. So they would need to come and go from the Town to where the construction site was. In short it would not be secure and concealed at all. Any worker would without a doubt report to Mars where and what they were building.

  So he had to come up with a solution for that or discard the project. His current best working idea was to give the workers the task to dig a tunnel into the earth and then excavate a bunker after they had dug deep and far enough to make it impractical to dig into the bunker from above. Then have branching tunnels until they would not know exactly they were above ground. When they were done he would have to dig and create the entrances himself at random points of the tunnel system and then destroy the entrance tunnel had they made to build the bunker. That way they would know the vicinity, but not the exact location of the bunker and if he concealed the entrances properly it could work. Either way he had to give it a try first before he could be certain it worked as he intended it to work.

  On the second day back in the forest Aaron also absorbed the spirit from the rogue alchemist that was still clinging to him. It had grown incredibly uncomfortable. The demon had said a week was possible, but it was agony. It did not hurt but was more like an itch you could not scratch. Like something was digging into his spirit, trying to take a hold and yet failing to do so. Like dirt clinging to your chest, sticky tar that would not wash away no matter how hard you scrubbed it off. It was always there, always wriggling to break free and it had annoyed the hell out of Aaron.

  So in the end he found a suitable stream and absorbed the spirit. It was relatively big, much to Aaron’s surprise, the man the spirit had belonged to had not been powerful at all. But he suspected crafting classes worked differently to the normal classes he had encountered before. After almost a week of clinging to him the spirit was easy to move. It was weakened, but had not lost any of its potency. Still it would probably not be enough to get him to another breakthrough.

  The fourth minor realm of Qi Refining was larger than he had expected it to be. His dantian filled with Qi as he cycled the spirit, with so much Qi he was amazed, but it barely made a dent in the vast cavern of his dantian. His Qi was thick and had a strange viscosity to it, like it was higher concentrated than before. It was not quite liquid, it was still very much gaseous. But it was like a thick heavy soup of fog that felt like it would be damp to walk through. It was also heavy and sank to the bottom of his dantian. No longer was it wisps of Qi he manipulated, but entire banks of fog. The more concentrated the power was the easier it seemed to be able to move to Aaron’s will. So far he had only one outlet for his power, his movement technique. But Wind Steps was taking less and less Qi so that it felt like he would never run out of Qi, only accumulate more.

  That was a great feeling. Like getting more wealthy by the minute, but in a deeper more metaphysical meaning. He was not getting richer, he was becoming more. It felt like the more Qi he gathered, the more himself he became, the more weight his existence had in this world. He could hardly imagine how it would feel to be as powerful as his teachers were, especially not how powerful the great Master had been when he was alive. Aaron already felt and knew he was superhuman. It was many things that indicated it to him. He was never getting tired anymore. Even when he trained for hours he was never really out of breath. He felt his muscles work, felt the strain when he pushed himself, but it never got to the point where he felt he could not move on. His body was also much more resilient. The cold mattered less and less to him, even though it was getting warmer by the day. The last snow was melting and green moss and pine needles dominated the forest. Slender dark branches of leafless trees broke up the green with brown and bright auburn colored bark.

  He was sure this floor would be beautiful at the start of summer and a sea of color in the autumn. He did suspect it to become fairly hot though. The fake sun already had quite a lot of power this early in spring. When Aaron was done absorbing the spirit he stood up out of the spring, slightly disappointed that he had not gotten his breakthrough to the 5th minor realm with the spirit. But he ended up with an at least 60% full dantian, closer to 70%. It was a vast amount of power and since nothing he did really used it up, he was sure if he continued to find spirits he would not stop pushing through the minor realms. Although he suspected it would take him 2 more spirits to break through to the fifth realm. And who knew how many for the 6th. Exponential growth was terrifying if he looked at it. If each minor realm was bigger than the next exponentially then he would need 32 times what he had to use in Qi to level from the fourth to the fifth just by the 9th realm. He knew the 10th realm would be a new major realm and he had no idea how that would work and what he needed for that. Either way it would take him hundreds of spirits to get there at this rate. A truly mind boggling amount of Qi. No wonder it took that long to cultivate.

  Aaron was sure there was a limit to the concentration and size of the dantian, or he hoped there was at least. Otherwise he would never get to the very top. The amount of Qi he could get would increase by taking higher ranked spirits of course, but still. If he thought about it logically he would need some other, better sources of Qi. He suspected those did not exist in the Tower. Spirits themselves were incredible sources of Qi of course. But he suspected he would hit the upper limit of their usefulness eventually. Either way it looked like it would take years or even decades until he was anywhere close to where spirits would not be enough anymore. He could barely imagine how long it would take to cultivate with just manastones. Sure he would get better at absorbing the mana and turning it into Qi, but that was nothing compared to a spirit. It would take a century to get anywhere with just manastones and that prospect mildly terrified him.

  Still he felt relieved without a spirit clinging to him and he was able to concentrate better during training. Spending hours every day on martial arts would have been a waste of time to the Aaron that had died in prison. But to Aaron right now it felt like every moment he spent training improved himself on a fundamental level. His Qi and the fiend-god art improved his body, his resilience, his muscles, the potency of anything he could do physically. But it did not train him how to use his new strength. The martial arts, the katas did train him to do so though. The stretches for Wind steps were similar in that they made him much much more flexible and turned his martial arts into an expression of flexible might instead of rigid force. When he was fighting shadows from the memory cores he was always disappointed in them. He started to yearn for a real fight, a real challenge and his desire to climb the tower, simply to challenge himself rose.

  Aaron paused as his senses felt something on the edge of his range and he listened and drew in breath to scent the air. Ah, Iris had come with a bunch of people to the clearing. It was already time. Aaron concentrated his senses and reached out towards the group still on the trail towards the clearing. He listened to their footsteps to establish how many they were. A group of five men, no four men and a woman. Although the woman was almost indistinguishable by sound, her smell gave her away. Interesting. What had Iris brought him this time? He had spent some time thinking about what he wanted her to buy and had made a list. Pots, a good quality pan, shovels, picks, a proper woodcutters ax. Foodstuffs like flour and spices. Most of them non perishable if kept in a dry and cool environment. That trail of thought gave him an idea. What if he told Iris he wanted to create a root cellar. It made a strange sort of sense to do this with his supplies, especially at different spots.

  He leapt up into the trees and moved with leisure towards the small group that had just arrived at the clearing. Before they could spot him, Aaron studied the group that had followed Iris. They were clearly with her and they were armed. He found a spot where he could catch a glimpse through the forest and his mana sense told him they had some enchanted gear, but none of them were mages. The way they moved and their weaponry told him that 3 of the group of 5 were rogue types. One of them had an unstrung bow slung around his back, so he was probably a ranger, his footsteps were very soft, especially on the forest path. The other male rogue was armed with a rapier of all things and had a cowl pulled low over his face. He seemed more like a fighter hybrid considering the man’s bulk. The female rogue was the only typically armed rogue with a pair of daggers, but she also had throwing knives strapped to a bandoleer and she had short hair and weary, watchful eyes that checked the vicinity. But Aaron was still too far away to be spotted by the likes of her.

  The two warriors were huge men in heavy armor that did not seem to encumber them much. They had both body plate armor, a metal cuirass at the front and back to be specific, but Aaron could only guess at the extent of all of their armor since they wore long cloaks over them. Both men stomped more through the forest than anything. One of the men had a greatsword strapped to his back, while the other one had an ax at his hip and a broad shield on his back. The group felt relaxed, a bit cautious, but not fearful or ready for a fight.

  Aaron moved a bit closer and realized they all had a piece of red cloth tied to their arms. The woman had it on her wrist like an armband, while the rogues both had their red colored armband hidden underneath their cloaks. He only caught a glimpse of color when they moved. One of the warriors, the one with the ax, had a pauldron with a red painted stripe on it while the other had an armband on the wrong arm, which is why it took Aaron longer to realize it. So they were Mars men, not unexpected, but still a surprise. He doubted it was for Iris protection, but he also doubted they were here to cause him any harm.

  “This is it.” Iris said and stopped at the edge of the clearing.

  “What do we do now?” the greatsword warrior asked.

  “We wait.”

  “Don’t we like have to announce ourselves or something?” the female rogue asked while her eyes darted around suspiciously.

  “No, he will find us. He probably already has.”

  The ranger scoffed, but he did not say anything. The group remained silent for a moment as they looked around. Aaron hesitated only for a moment before he slipped down the tree he stood on and silently walked through the forest until he stood behind a tree almost directly in front of the group. Then he stepped out from behind the tree with a smile and watched the whole group of climbers flinch, while Iris did not seem surprised at all.

  “Hello Iris, nice to see you again. Who are your friends?”

  “Hello Aaron.” Iris said courteously and she did enjoy the situation as well by the smirk she had on her lips as she glanced over to the group behind her.

  “That is one of the districts Climber groups. They are here because of some new request Mars has for you.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Aaron raised his eyebrows and gave the group a glance before he beckoned Iris closer.

  “Well, we will get to that later. Lets take a walk while we talk. You guys can stay here.” Aaron said and turned around and walked slowly away. Iris quickly followed him, while the group of Climbers stopped in their tracks and just stared at his back.

  “So that’s him. Does not feel like much.” one of the warriors said.

  “Moron. None of us could detect him, like at all. Man makes no sound at all.” the female rogue said with a shiver.

  “No wonder the boss wanted him to do it.” one of the warriors said with a hint of respect in his voice.

  Aaron walked with Iris in silence until they were out of earshot from the group and almost at the other end of the clearing. He turned to her and Iris stopped.

  “Well I did not expect a climber group to show up, they are here for a task for me?”

  “Yes. Although I do not know what it is. Mars wants you to climb up a few floors and then do ‘something’. I have a sealed letter for you from him in which he explains everything.” Iris got a wax sealed letter from her purse and handed it over to him. Then she put a second, much bigger purse into his other hand.

  “This is your payment for tasks done.”

  “Thanks.” Aaron took a peek and studied the mid grade manastones with interest. He remembered how much mana was in those and was more than satisfied. There should be 40 in there. 10 as a base and 30 for three tasks completed. It was a lot of manastones he guessed, especially since mid grade was basically worth 100 normal mana stones.

  “Is my base fee in there as well?”

  “Its 40 mid grade manastones.”

  “Excellent.”

  Aaron opened the letter and read through it quickly. He was surprised. Mars told him a group from the 51st floor, the exact group that had ambushed him on the rooftops during his little theft, had hired him to delay another group from upstairs. They were apparently on the 4th floor and there was an intricate map besides the letter giving their exact location. His task was to take out the whole group of 8 without killing anyone. Aaron scoffed. That would make this so much harder. Mars told him to take their spirits though, which was an interesting task in itself. To Aaron it looked like Mars wanted to make him stronger as fast as possible. Not that he was complaining, but still. There were a few problems with the task. He did not know the floors besides the second and he did not really want to rush up to the fourth floor for this task. He did have apparently weeks time to do it, but still. The group of Climbers were supposed to be his guards, were supposed to help him climb quickly and guide him through the dangers of the two unfamiliar floors. Mars told him that it was an urgent task and that he would pay him 100 mid grade manastones if he succeeded. He did state three times not to kill his targets though, so that was important to him.

  After he had read through the letter he looked up to Iris and then over to the waiting group in the distance. He was not sure if he wanted their help. They were probably here to get a feeling of his actual combat strength during climbs and if he accepted their help then he would give that information to Mars. On the other hand they would be useful as guides and they would be a great cover if he encountered anyone. He thought about it as bit and then accepted it as is. It was not too bad of a deal and he did want to climb sooner than later.

  “So the manhunt is over?” he asked Iris who nodded.

  “Yesterday the Climbers on blockade duty all came back to the Town. It was quite the spectacle. You were declared officially dead.” Iris said and smirked at that last part.

  “They still kept your bounty up for your corpse though.”

  “Well then. Mars came through. I am not really surprised, but its good to know that he keeps his word.”

  Aaron did not know why but it felt like a heavy weight had lifted of his shoulders. He was not hunted anymore, not really. He could resume being a normal Climber. Well as normal as a Cultivator climbing the Tower could be. It was still a relief.

  “Okay, well then lets get to business. But first how did Mars treat you, are you still…?”

  “I took your advice and Mars pays me to be his messenger now. Although I felt a bit superfluous when I heard you paid him a visit personally.” Iris gave him a mock pout.

  “My debt has been canceled. I don’t know, it felt like I had wings this past week. Like I can finally breathe again.”

  “I am glad. But I hope you are willing to do some work for me as my messenger.”

  “Of course.” Iris said and cocked her hips to the side in a more seductive pose. “I am willing to do anything for you.” she said with a wink.

  “Great, then here is my shopping list for the next week.” Aaron said and gave her the list he had made. Iris took it, read through it and her eyebrows rose.

  “Are you planning to live out here?”

  “Yes, what do you think how much would all of this cost?”

  “I don’t know. Quite a lot. This is basically a whole kitchen and food enough for a whole family for a month.”

  “Are 20 mid grade mana stones enough?” Aaron asked and started counting the glittering stones out from the purse she had given him.

  “20? Of course, 10 would be enough!” she said exasperated. He gave her 20 anyways and continued.

  “That is not all what I want you to find. I need you to find some builders, construction workers and probably an architect if those exist in this world.”

  “You want to build something out here?”

  “Yes, come on I’ll show you where.”

  Aaron led Iris into the woods. Every few steps he showed her a landmark or detail of the forest so she could find her way back to the spot more easily. Then after a few hundred yards he stopped in the middle of the forest. There he had marked the spot with four big sticks he had stuck into the earth. There was a small boulder nearby that hid the spot from view, but in the end that was just fake to make the builders believe he would really use this entrance to his bunker.

  “Do you know what a root cellar is?” he asked iris, who nodded.

  “That is an underground storage place for vegetables and stuff like that, no?”

  “Exactly. I plan to live out here and the first step is to have a place to store all my supplies. So a root cellar.”

  Iris nodded but then asked curiously.

  “Why? You could easily live in the Town. It is not that far from here.”

  “The Town is great, but it would mean Mars would know about all my movements and it would be much easier to surprise me. Out here is nothing but wilderness. Much harder to sneak up on if they are the only humans in range.”

  “If you say so. I can try to find people who can do this, but they won’t be cheap.”

  “That is fine, if you need more money, I can always get it for you.”

  “Well in that case I will try to come back in a week and start?”

  “Go ahead. I do not know how long I will be away climbing and doing Mars mission, so I might not be here next week. Just go ahead and start. I want a long tunnel, around a hundred meters long in an angle downwards. I know that makes it basically a tunnel, like a mine entrance, but I want the cellar to be deep enough.”

  “Okay. Anything else?”

  “No. If you can get this done over the next few weeks I would be really glad.”

  “Can I mark the way here with something? I am not sure I can find my way back here.”

  “Of course, go ahead. Just don’t spread this location around too much.”

  “I will do my best. Can’t say this is my specialty. Finding people and making them work. Shopping is easy enough though.” Iris said contemplative.

  “You can take a commission from whatever you buy. Just don’t be greedy. I will find out eventually if you are.”

  Iris paused and then cleared her throat.

  “Aaron.” she says seriously. “You do not have to threaten me. I know what kind of man you are. I have no intentions of ever getting on your bad side.”

  “It was not meant as a threat, more of a warning. Ah. I suppose that can be seen as a threat.” Aaron said and then shrugged.

  “I won’t take a commission unless you tell me how much. It would make me uncomfortable.” Iris said to explain.

  “10% then.”

  “I’ll take five, that is plenty. I hope we can continue work together in the future.”

  “Suit yourself and yes. Cultivators have very, very long lives. Don’t worry, those who treat me well will be rewarded. You already have seen that. No more working for a brothel, right?”

  “Right. I am very grateful for that.” Iris said and gave him a coy smile. Aaron was conscious of the way Iris presented herself and the memory of his night with the pretty barmaid came to mind, before he swatted that thought down.

  “Good, that is all I want for the week, find some builders and get started when I am not here next week.”

  “I will get everything on that list. Don’t worry. I got this.”

  “Great, now lets deal with that group of busybodies.”

  “Deal with? Aaron they were sent by Mars and…”

  “Not like that.” Aaron interrupted her as he started walking back towards the group who had settled down to wait. Iris breathed out a sigh of relief and followed after him slowly, probably to remember the way. Aaron did not really know what he wanted to do with the group yet, but in the end he just went with his gut feeling. It would be nice to have some backup but he did not think he would need it. When he appeared before them on the path with Iris in tow the group stood back up and gathered around him.

  “So, are you my babysitters for this mission, or can I send you home?”

  One of the Rogues, the one with the unstrung bow clared his throat and stepped forward.

  “You are free to dismiss us at any time of course. We are here as guides and as your team if you want, Cultivator.”

  “Hmm. So what is your mission?”

  “Resource gathering.” the female rogue said and twirled one of her throwing knives around her finger.

  “Yes. We are here to support you, but if you say no, we go up to the fourth floor on our own to gather Crystal Dust. That is our mission. If you decide to take us with you, then we will be at your disposal of course. Just be aware we are not disposable assets. We all value our lives. Which is why we chose to run with the district and not some mage idiot.” the ranger said and spat out to the side at the mention of mages.

  “Is that so? Well I am not a mage and I am not a leader. You can come with me, but I have some conditions.”

  “Like what?”

  “First, I do the fighting. You stay back and let me kill shit unless I tell you to intervene.”

  “What, just you?” The greatsword warrior said with a scoff, before the rapier wearing rogue kicked him in the shin and the man shut up.

  “Second, you pose as my group if anyone comes up to us. Be my cover. I would rather not be identified and hunted again if I can help it.” Aaron got immediate nods to that, which told him posing as his group was part of their purpose of being here.

  “Third, you can be my pack mules. You are here to gather resources, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then grab what you can from the beasts I kill or flowers or whatever else you need to grab. I get 50%, you split the rest.”

  The group looked at each other and the female rogue grinned.

  “So what we just follow you and pick up the loot?”

  “Precisely.”

  She chuckled and shook her head in disbelief.

  “Easiest Climb of my life. I am Shia. I am usually the scout for us.”

  “Hold up, are we all okay with this? I still think you might be underestimating the tower, Cultivator.” The ranger said and looked at his group. The greatsword warrior shrugged and nodded. The axe warrior gave Aaron a sneer and nodded as well. The rapier wielding rogue nodded silently. The ranger sighed and then shrugged.

  “Well, we are in agreement then. 50% of what you kill is yours, the rest is ours. We follow you, you kill. We heard we are going to the fourth floor, but that is basically it. What is the mission?”

  “It’s to kidnap a group from upstairs. Eight people from the 52nd floor.” Aaron explained and he shrugged. “I will have to take a look at them and at the terrain. But I will probably nab them one by one and have you take care of them. That a problem?”

  “Nope. Done hostage stuff before.” Most of the group nodded. Only Iris looked positively stunned. Her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open as she listened.

  “My Name is Roger.” The ranger said. “I am the team lead, Shia already introduced herself, she is our scout with me. The two warriors are Mortimer.” he nodded towards the greatsword wielding man. “and Robin.” he pointed at the ax warrior. “That there is Stab. He does not talk much.”

  “Stab? Just stab?” Aaron asked with a chuckle.

  “Yeah, never told us his name, he just stabs shit with that long rapier of his.”

  “It’s an old custom. We all choose a name or get one when we join the district. Although I kept my name.” Shia said with a smirk.

  “Alright then. Mission is supposed to be time sensitive. Unless you have any other plans or the way to the second floor is still barred, we can go right now.” Aaron said and looked at Roger.

  “Should be clear now, we would be able to pass either way though. So no worries. We came ready to climb.”

  “Good, gimme a few minutes to pack my stuff. Iris, you got any more questions or things to relay to me?”

  “What? Oh, no, that was all.” Iris said slightly flustered as they all looked at her. Aaron nodded and then leapt up into the forest, which had quite an effect on the group. Mortimer flinched and then looked around in disbelief, while Robin stared after him. Shia laughed in delight and Roger had the stony face of someone who was considering his life choices.

  Only the silent Stab kept following Aaron with his eye for quite a while. Interesting.

  Aaron went back to his small impromptu camp and gathered his things. He was honestly glad to have a proper excuse to climb. There had been some reluctance there. Being trapped on the second floor had not been a nice feeling and going back up into the desert or the jungle had left him with some trepidation. Now that he had made a choice and had jumped at the opportunity, he felt better. He filled his backpack with his manastones and backup potions, strapped his sleeping bag to the backpack and shouldered it. He went over the camp one more time to make sure he had not forgotten anything. Then he leapt back into the trees and landed quietly in front of the group that was still waiting for him.

  “Neat trick.” Shia said with a grin.

  “I am ready, lets go.” Aaron said and Roger nodded.

  “I’ll be on my way then as well. I wish you...good fortune?” Iris said and gave the group a small bow. Aaron nodded towards her and the woman turned away and walked down the path towards the Town. The two warriors ogled at her retreating backside until Roger cleared his throat.

  “Well then, up we go to the second floor.” he said and walked down the path into the opposite direction of the Town. His group followed him with little hesitation and Aaron tagged along. It was a strange feeling to move with people, especially as they were not trying to kill him so far... It was a nice change of pace and Aaron wondered if he would get a chance to kill one of the bosses on the second floor. He was itching for a good fight and he looked forward to seeing what the third and fourth floor had in stock for him.